Browsing by Author "Panchal, Anurag"

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5M approach to decipher starch-lipid interaction in minor millets
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2023) Ramesh, Palakurthi; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Panchal, Anurag; Prasad, Manoj
The 5M approach can be applied to understand genetic complexity underlying nutritional traits of minor millets. It will help to systematically identify genomic regions/candidate genes imprinting metabolite profiles. Author’s work in this area is supported by research grants from Ministry of Science and Technology, Gov. of India [GrantCRG/2020/000488 and BT/Ag/Network/Wheat/2019–20].
DNA methylation dynamics in response to abiotic and pathogen stress in plants
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2022) Arora, Heena; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Sharma, Shambhavi; Sharma, Namisha; Panchal, Anurag; Das, Tuhin; Prasad, Ashish; Prasad, Manoj
DNA methylation is a dynamic epigenetic mechanism that plays a significant role in gene expression and also maintains chromatin stability. The process is conserved in both plants and animals, and crucial for development and stress responses. Differential DNA methylation during adverse environmental conditions or pathogen attack facilitates the selective expression of defense-related genes. Both stress-induced DNA hypomethylation and hypermethylation play beneficial roles in activating the defense response. These DNA marks may be carried to the next generation making the progenies ‘primed’ for abiotic and biotic stress responses. Over the recent years, rapid advancements in the area of high throughput sequencing have enabled the detection of methylation status at genome levels in several plant species. Epigenotyping offers an alternative tool to plant breeders in addition to conventional markers for the selection of the desired offspring. In this review, we briefly discuss the mechanism of DNA methylation, recent understanding of DNA methylation-mediated gene regulation during abiotic and biotic stress responses, and stress memory in plants.
Genome sequencing efforts in minor millets: Current knowledge and emerging insights
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2025) Singh, Roshan Kumar; Panchal, Anurag; Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Prasad, Manoj
Small millets (or minor millets) include finger millet (Eleusine coracana), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), barnyard millet (Echinochloa crus-galli), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), little millet (Panicum sumatrense), teff (Eragrostis tef), fonio (Digitaria exilis), job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), guinea millet (Brachiaria deflexa), and browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa). These millets are highly nutritious and climate-resilient but marginally cultivated for the production and consumption of particular communities. Though called “poor men’s crops,” minor millets possess the potential to ensure food and nutritional security amid the threat of global climate change. Thus, scope exists to improve the agronomic traits of these minor millets for commercial cultivation; however, lack of genomic resources remains a bottleneck to this advancement. Genome sequencing not only provides an opportunity to decode the genes encoded by the genome, but also provides avenue for the development of genomic resources. The success of genome sequencing for resource development and further implementation of these resources have been proven in other crop plants. Among minor millets, genomes of a few species have been sequenced, including finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, teff, fonio, and job’s tears. However, the genomes of kodo millet, little millet, guinea millet, and browntop millet remains to be sequenced. In this context, the chapter summarizes the outcomes of sequencing efforts and the application of genome sequence information in accelerating genomics studies in minor millets. The chapter also enumerates the status of transcriptome sequencing and its application in dissecting the genes underlying important traits.
An insight into the roles of regulatory ncRNAs in plants: An abiotic stress and developmental perspective
(Elsevier B.V., 2023) Panchal, Anurag; Maurya, Jyoti; Seni, Sushmita; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, Manoj
Different environmental cues lead to changes in physiology, biochemistry and molecular status of plant's growth. Till date, various genes have been accounted for their role in regulating plant development and response to abiotic stress. Excluding genes that code for a functional protein in a cell, a large chunk of the eukaryotic transcriptome consists of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) which lack protein coding capacity but are still functional. Recent advancements in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology have led to the unearthing of different types of small and large non-coding RNAs in plants. Non-coding RNAs are broadly categorised into housekeeping ncRNAs and regulatory ncRNAs which work at transcriptional, post-transcriptional and epigenetic levels. Diverse ncRNAs play different regulatory roles in nearly all biological processes including growth, development and response to changing environments. This response can be perceived and counteracted by plants using diverse evolutionarily conserved ncRNAs like miRNAs, siRNAs and lncRNAs to participate in complex molecular regimes by activating gene-ncRNA-mRNA regulatory modules to perform the downstream function. Here, we review the current understanding with a focus on recent advancements in the functional studies of the regulatory ncRNAs at the nexus of abiotic stresses and development. Also, the potential roles of ncRNAs in imparting abiotic stress tolerance and yield improvement in crop plants are also discussed with their future prospects.
Major transcription factor families at the nexus of regulating abiotic stress response in millets: a comprehensive review
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2024) Prusty, Ankita; Panchal, Anurag; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, Manoj
Millets stand out as a sustainable crop with the potential to address the issues of food insecurity and malnutrition. These small-seeded, drought-resistant cereals have adapted to survive a broad spectrum of abiotic stresses. Researchers are keen on unravelling the regulatory mechanisms that empower millets to withstand environmental adversities. The aim is to leverage these identified genetic determinants from millets for enhancing the stress tolerance of major cereal crops through genetic engineering or breeding. This review sheds light on transcription factors (TFs) that govern diverse abiotic stress responses and play role in conferring tolerance to various abiotic stresses in millets. Specifically, the molecular functions and expression patterns of investigated TFs from various families, including bHLH, bZIP, DREB, HSF, MYB, NAC, NF-Y and WRKY, are comprehensively discussed. It also explores the potential of TFs in developing stress-tolerant crops, presenting a comprehensive discussion on diverse strategies for their integration.
Recent advancements and future perspectives of foxtail millet genomics
(Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2023) Panchal, Anurag; Singh, Roshan Kumar; Prasad, Manoj
One of the oldest domesticated crops, foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) is known for its enormous seed production and ability to grow in unfavourable agro-economic conditions. This understudied diploid panicoid crop plant which performs C4 type of photosynthesis, contains approximately seven folds higher proteins with macro and micro-nutrients as compared to major cereals including rice and wheat. Encompassing a small genome size of ~ 515 Mb, short life cycle, and inbred properties make this orphan crop a potential model system to study abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms adopted by plants. Rich phenotypic variation and the largest available germplasm collection of cultivated and wild species exists for foxtail millet. Release of whole genome sequence in 2012, led to acceleration of functional genomic studies and molecular characterization of Setaria genes conferring stress tolerance. Recent advancements in integrative OMICS and NGS approaches are contributing in functional analysis, understanding complex gene regulatory networks and molecular mechanisms behind its growth and development. Abiotic stress tolerance traits of foxtail millet including drought, salinity, and its survival in nutrient-poor soil can be introduced in popular crop plants by genetic engineering techniques. Stable plant transformation system and precise gene editing in foxtail millet are under optimization which can revolutionize the theme of climate resilient future crops. Overall, foxtail millet has characteristics to serve as an excellent C4 model plant to study evolution, stress physiology and biomass production for bioenergy crops to serve sustainable global food security in near future.